We at Development Dialogues are constantly trying to expose what lies beneath the glitzy exterior of 'development' the world over. The blog was started as an archive for the articles and reports pertaining to the land acquisitions in West Bengal and India. The scope of the blog has since been expanded to include resistance movements against state and corporate repressions from around the world.

Friday, April 10, 2009

KOLKATA: A section of the city intelligentsia, which turned away from CPM, post Singur and Nandigram, released a manifesto on Thursday demanding steps to ensure the election results reflect the aspirations of the people. They also want to stay away from the poll process, but want people to cast their votes without fear. The manifesto was signed by the likes of Mahasweta Devi, Bibhas Chakraborty, Suvaprasanna, Saonli Mitra, Sujato Bhadra, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu, among several othersEducationist Tarun Sanyal explained the reasons behind releasing the manifesto by the intellectuals. "We are not campaigning for any party. We feel the situation in Bengal is such that we cannot remain quiet," Sanyal said."Change is required for the sake of democracy. This has to be achieved through the election process. If one party remains in power in the Centre or state for decades, it is not healthy for democracy ...If people want change, they will have to find out ways to bring it about," the manifesto reads.The manifesto maintained that bringing about the change is a long-drawn process.